one of my problems with hypertext may have something to do with the way I
have tried to use it. Since I find it on the Internet, as soon as I click
on a new hypertext item, the system starts to go back looking for a
distance source, and waits a while until it has found it. It tells me how
many bytes to expect (Thanks).
By the time the next screen has come up, I have forgotten what was on the
last one. I guess what I need is a hard disk full of the hypertext, so as
soon as I have finished reading one thing, I can get the next one to pop
up without any intermediate distraction or time delay. At least, this is
my optimistic slant on it.
I do have one theoretical problem with hypertext. It seems to be founded
in the assumption that knowledge can be organized in the form of a
hierarchy, and that the best way to study a hierarchy is to go down one
long path through it, without ever seeing the whole hierarchy. It also
seems to be founded in the assumption that hierarchy is the most general
form of knowledge organization.
Those who are familar with the odyssey of Christopher Alexander are aware
that he started out believing in trees, but later he decided that "a city
is not a tree", and decided that it must be a lattice. Sooner or later,
one must come to realize that both the tree and the lattice are examples
of the more general HYBRID STRUCTURE, which has both hierarchical and
cyclic components. The best way to face up to a hybrid structure in a
particular area of study is to develop it, put it up on a large wall,
study it as a whole by visual scanning and cross-path observation. Then,
and only then, may it be appropriate to go to hypertext while the whole
structure is in full view. Even then, the hypertext should figure out
some way to deal with the cyclic components of the HYBRID STRUCTURE that
is tuned up to human assimilation.
This message supersedes all of my previous communications on the LO.
-- John Warfield Johnwfield@aol.comYours for expanding the real estate industry to incorporate the corporate observatorium!